Festival provides platform for improvisation and experimentation

A music festival unlike the rest is coming up in Nicosia on April 19 and 20 as it is dedicated to improvisation and experimental music. Happening for the second time, Breach Festival’s mission is to boost and support practices of free improvisation, free jazz, contemporary classical music, experimental electronic music and sound art, as well as many other uncharted music making traditions in Cyprus. Music lovers of the island, mark your calendars and head down to Theatro Polis later this week!

The Festival happens in partnership with the Irtijal festival in Lebanon, the largest festival in Beirut, as well as with the Space21 festival in Kurdistan/Iraq. Participating in the festival’s events are musicians from Cyprus, Lebanon, Kurdistan/Iraq, and Germany who are accomplished in the field of improvisation and experimental music with a long history of performing at recognised venues and festivals around the world.

Performing in Breach is Emiddio Vasquez and C-Drik with live electronics set, Jad Atoui on synth and guitar, Anthony Sahyoum on electric guitar, Duo Moment with Hardi Kurda on a customised violin, viola and DIY objects and Khabat Abas on a customised cello.

Besides performances, Breach will also include a workshop that will take place on April 20 between 10am and 4pm at Theatro Polis. Split into two parts, Emiddio Vasquez will lead participants into a session that takes a close look at physical modelling as a technique to synthesize sound, by using a hybrid of MaxMSP and modal synthesis. To do so participants will consider notions of computation, digital sound composition and synthesis, as material processes by engaging critically with the ideological assumptions and constructions on both domains and the implemented technics. The workshop will introduce users to core issues at stake when considering digital instrument building, ultimately inviting them to form ‘a new forge’ and leave the workshop with their own individual materially-dependent digital instruments.

Breach Festival

Improvisation and experimental music festival. Organised by Make Music Cyprus. April 19-20. Theatre Polis, Nicosia. 8pm. €10-25. Tickets via www.soldoutticketbox.com